A LETTER FROM THE OUTGOING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

BY: MADELINE SMOLARZ

It feels as though I was introducing myself as the new Editor-in-Chief of Musings to all of you lovely readers just the other day. Now, as of April 15th next week, I will no longer have this role.

In my natural habitat / museum happy place - the Royal Ontario Museum. Photo Credit: Madeline Smolarz.

The past 12 months have been extremely exciting and rewarding for me! I had the privilege to supervise 20 contributing editors who amazed me every day with their breadth of knowledge, passion for museums, stupendous writing skills, and eagerness to participate. I spoke to countless museum professionals as well as prospective MMSt students about Musings, elated to find out how our readership is expanding. I coordinated our social media efforts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and watched our followers / likes increase along with the number of you engaging with our content. I wrote features of MMSt community events to showcase our outstanding student body and professors, and saw people's pride in their work soar.

All the while, I've learned a great deal from every comment, email, tweet, and conversation. I could write a manuscript about my experience at this point! But this is supposed to be a brief "see you later," so I'll say this instead: I can't say enough how grateful I am that I was able to hold this position and help guide Musings through another year.

The heartwarming thank you card I received from the Musings team. Photo Credit: Madeline Smolarz

As I sign off one final time as both a Musings' contributor and your Editor-in-Chief, there are a few thank-yous I would like to give in response to the ones I received in the card pictured above.

Thank you to Professor Irina Mihalache for providing her wonderful guidance for all of Musings' endeavours this year. I couldn't have faced some of the challenges this past year has thrown at the blog without you, Irina, and the blog is forever indebted to you for your fearless leadership since it came to life online three years ago.

Thank you to former Editor-in-Chief Jaime Clifton-Ross for being a wonderful friend and mentor throughout the entire two years I've been with Musings. I owe so much to you and want you to know how much all of your empowering advice has meant to me. Best of luck as you move across the country to pursue what I'm sure will be a fantastic career!

Thank you to every single contributor that I was able to work with, past and present. From sharing laughs during and after meetings, bemoaning the quirks of our blog platform (sorry Blogger, but you are sometimes a pain), and sharing ideas, it has been such a fun ride with all of you! Every single individual brought something different to the team to make us one seriously successful and talented family. I sincerely hope that I am able to work with some if not all of you again in the future, and I can't wait to see where your paths will lead.

With Historic Kitchen's Leah Moncada & Sew What's Anya Baker. Photo Credit: Orvis Starkweather

Thank you to Natania Sherman, the incoming Editor-in-Chief, for all of your help and support over the last 8 months in your role as Musings' Administrator. Your contributions to keeping our social media efforts on track have been very much appreciated, and you are a true champion of the blog. I'm thrilled that you were elected -- congratulations again! -- and I so look forward to seeing where you take Musings over the next year. The contributing team is lucky to have you at the helm.

Finally, thank YOU, every single one of you who have ever read Musings. Readers give a blog purpose and shape it irrevocably. You inspire everyone on the team every day to keep researching, writing, and publishing. I hope you are just as excited as I am to start reading again when Musings returns in May after a short spring hiatus.

Til we meet again.

- Madeline